Condom stock surges after S. Korean court rules that adultery is not a crime

South Korea’s highest court has struck down a decades-old law banning adultery in the country.

The ruling sent shares in the country’s biggest condom maker, UnidusCorp, soaring to the 15 per cent daily limit gain.

The law was enacted in 1953 to protect women in a male-dominated society where divorce was rare. It made marital infidelity punishable by jail.

"The law is unconstitutional as it infringes people’s right to make their own decisions on sex and secrecy and freedom of their private life, violating the principle banning excessive enforcement under the constitution," said SeoKi-seok, a Constitutional Court justice, reading an opinion representing five justices.

Seven members of the nine-judge panel deemed the law to be unconstitutional.